People refuse to state the obvious. So the obvious no longer becomes obvious and this is how we end up with customers having to push nine or 10 different buttons to talk to a real human. At the customer service development meeting, someone had to ignore the obvious and instead, make the decision that they were going to install a phone tree that required a customer to push nine or 10 different buttons before they were allowed to talk to a real human.
In essence, what happened is that everyone followed everyone else. No one stood up and spoke their mind and asked, "isn't this going to be a problem for our customers?" All it would take would be one person to stand up at a meeting and say just that and the phone tree idea never would've moved ahead. But because one company uses the phone tree, all of the other companies started using the phone tree. It was less expensive to have an automated phone system than it was to have actually a human being answering the phone regardless of whether it was convenient for the customer or not.
Why would no one stand up at the meeting, where the original phone tree discussion was taking place and not say, "this is going to really suck for the customers?" How could 20 supposedly brilliant minds sitting around the board room table not see that this was going to suck for the customers? How could those same 20 supposedly brilliant minds not once advocate on behalf of the customer? How could 20 seemingly decent people all end up promoted to senior management and be in charge of the customer service experience without once standing up for their beliefs, their values and their customers?
How could this happen? Because there is a culture of "good enough." And in the post-recession world, "good enough" isn't even close to good enough anymore.
Back to the original thought again: all it would have taken is for one person to stand up and ask, "have we thought of this from the customer's perspective?" All it would've taken is for one person to state the obvious: that this is not good for our customers. But, because of fear of losing their job, no one spoke up and stated the obvious. And, for some reason, the whole phone tree idea caught on even though customers thought it was a horrible system (as do employees and VPs of Customer Service who make calls to other companies).
But businesses refused to do anything about it, because times were good and money was easy and customers would buy regardless of how tough you made it for them to do so. But now times are not so good and money is not so easy and old-school customer service is at the top of the list of must-do's.
Customers choose your organization mostly by your attitude factors: approachability, freindliness, ease of service. Not once have I ever heard a customer exclaim, "Excellent - a phone tree." Not a single one has ever said that. So it's time for you people in Customer Service to spend a little more time on the key component of your department: the customer.
And stop ignoring the obvious.
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1 comment:
I find that the phone tree useful... if it is implemented properly. When done right, the MOST common thing a customer requires is listed first. Or in other systems, the most URGENT thing is listed first (like cancel your stolen credit card). Also, an "undocumented" feature is often to press zero (even if it is not listed in the verbal menu) which defaults to the operator/real person.
If implemented this way, I can get answers to my common questions without help from a person. Actually, I usually look for these kinds of answers from a web page anyway. If I know that my question is going to need help from an accounts person, I'll press the '0' to skip the menu.
Sadly, this doesn't always work. Then I am forced to wait until the end of the menu when it says, in effect, "now that I am certain I can't help you without a person, here is the option you've been waiting for... press 'x'". I can understand why they make you wait like this because customers are lazy and can't be bothered jumping through hoops.
So there you see... it is not the phone tree that is at fault, it is lazy customers that are helping to evolve the system into a frustrating ordeal.
Tim R.
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